Reader's Choice

Ita O'Donovan is a member of Cabinteely and Clifden Writers' Groups

These Same Long Bones (Penguin, £6.99 in the UK) is a first novel by Gwendolyn M. Parker. The story opens with a funeral, that of a child, in North Carolina. The description of the wake, the food prepared by family and neighbours - turkeys, pots of collards, turnips and pies - the spontaneous prayers, create a sense of this coloured community. There is a mystery about the accidental death which may be linked to dubious property development for the coloureds by white speculators. In the end principles are upheld by Sirus McDougald, the hero of the story and the father of the dead child. There is universal relevance in this novel though it is full of the atmosphere of its own particular place.